Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: July 16, 2025
A couple of Bugis war-boats lay anchored in the middle of the stream to protect the river, and a thread of smoke stood at the bow of each; the men in them were cooking their midday rice when Jim, after his interviews with Brown and Doramin, crossed the river and entered by the water-gate of his fort. The people inside crowded round him, so that he could hardly make his way to the house.
The English vessels, having dispersed or sunk a fleet of war-boats which came out to meet them, steamed along the shore, pouring in an iron shower, which tore the stockades to pieces and quickly silenced the enemy's batteries.
Information was received that nearly 5000 troops were assembled near the stockades, and during the night and the following day numerous war-boats, each containing from fifty to eighty men, were discovered coming down the river. At the same time several vessels full of armed men arrived at the general rendezvous from the Pegu river. The war had begun.
Presently we come to Paklat Boon, a place of detached cottages and orchards, fondly courting the river, the pretty homesteads of husbandmen and gardeners. Here, too, is a dock-yard for the construction of royal barges and war-boats, some of them more than eighty feet long, with less than twelve feet beam.
The most ambitious efforts of this kind are devoted to the construction of the great war-boats, fine specimens of which are as much as 100 feet in length, or even, in exceptional instances, nearly 150 feet. The foundation of every boat is a single piece of timber shaped and hollowed by fire and adze. Sometimes a suitable stem is found floating down river and brought to the bank before the house.
The ordinary war-boat carries from sixty to seventy men seated two abreast on the cross-benches. It is steered by the paddles of the two bow-men and the four next the stern. One of these war-boats, manned by sixty or seventy paddlers, can maintain a pace about equal to that of our University racing eights.
The Shingle grinding along the shore, When they dragged his war-boats down to the sea; The dawn-wind whistling his spears among. And the magic song of his ministrels three. Whereby you may know, if you consider it rightly, what great strain of influence flows in from the Great Plain and the Land of Youth, that may yet help towards the salvation of Europe.
Well, as soon as the strange prahu was seen, a number of these war-boats put out of a harbour, the entrance of which was concealed by trees, and, before she could escape, surrounded her. The Malays fought bravely, but they were not prepared for war, and after several of their number were killed they were overpowered.
If, through the want of garrisons and population, it should not, however, be possible to deprive them of all their outlets, by which means they would still be able occasionally to send some of their cruising vessels, nevertheless there would be facilities with which it would be possible to pursue and counteract the ravages of the few pirates who might furtively escape out of some river, while now they are fitted out, and well manned and armed to the number of one and two hundred war-boats, openly in their ports.
Lieutenant Keele and those under him behaved most gallantly, destroying thirty of the enemy's war-boats and opening a heavy fire on the stockades, while the troops stormed and carried the fortress. The Burmese were next driven from Kemerdine, a fortified village above Rangoon.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking